Seriously though, at my wife's office, their desk phones were all removed because one of her co-workers was constantly calling her house to speak at her dog. But at least it was Boxer - not a little white puff-ball dog!

"Hello. This is the publicist for Ellen DeGeneres. We've discovered the dog you have is actually Ellen's, which was meant to replace the dog she got and then gave to someone else and then discovered the other folks couldn't keep the dog...Anyway. After extensive DNA tests, we found the dog is Ellen's. You're to drop the dog pronto at an agreed-upon Starbuck's tomorrow morning.

Have a nice day."

(P.S. - this was my "humor break" from packing. Thanks for the strangely funny laugh.) :-)

Here's how I talk to my dog: "Look here, dog, you go run around in the yard, get filthy, stink to high heaven, and appear to be mildly interested in me when I get home, got it?"Dog: ***clueless stare*** Me: "There's a good pup."

If you are still considering becoming a nurse, a good preparation would be to be a nurses aide.

Aides in nursing homes are trained well in personal care and how to move people, invaluable skills for nurses. This is a very dirty and physical strenuous job. It also teaches one things about life, death, old age, love, depression, and hope, that I don't think one can learn anywhere else.

After doing that a while, the nurse aide job in a hospital is a bit less strenuous and you get to do a few more things, like take vital signs and in some places, check blood sugars. You are exposed to various medical terms and procedures. You get to know how a hospital works and what nurses really do.

One thing is sure, you would have no coworkers talking into the phone to their dogs. Absolutely no one has time for such things in either setting.

I would second Susan's remarks. My mother, who's been an RN for 45 years, has told me several times about women she's worked with who started out as Nurses Aides and became Nursing Directors and Nursing Educators over the years.

Often times the Hospital will help pay for your education since they benefit from it first.